{"id":10120,"date":"2015-04-03T15:27:57","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T15:27:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/?p=10120"},"modified":"2021-04-21T15:06:39","modified_gmt":"2021-04-21T19:06:39","slug":"easter-sunrise-services-a-brief-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/easter-sunrise-services-a-brief-history.html","title":{"rendered":"Easter Sunrise Services: A Brief History"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Easter sunrise services have been held for centuries. According to <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sunrise_service\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Wikipedia<\/a>, the earliest recorded sunrise service was held in 1732 in Germany.<\/p>\n<p>Easter sunrise services \u2013 often coupled with an early morning breakfast \u2013 have also been an American tradition since the 1700s. The <span class=\"removed_link\" title=\"http:\/\/www.visitnc.com\/event\/moravian-easter-sunrise-service\">Moravian Church Easter sunrise service<\/span>, held annually since 1772 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has grown to be one of the largest Easter services held in the country.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10121\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10121\" style=\"width: 365px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/winston-salem-journal-newspaper-0416-1911-easter.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10121\" title=\"winston-salem-journal-newspaper-0416-1911-easter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/winston-salem-journal-newspaper-0416-1911-easter.png\" alt=\"article about Easter sunrise service, Winston-Salem Journal newspaper article 16 April 1911\" width=\"365\" height=\"438\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/winston-salem-journal-newspaper-0416-1911-easter.png 365w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/winston-salem-journal-newspaper-0416-1911-easter-250x300.png 250w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 365px) 100vw, 365px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10121\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Winston-Salem Journal (Winston Salem, North Carolina), 16 April 1911, page 1<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In 1937, more than 35,000 braved the cold weather to attend the Easter sunrise service near Lawton, Oklahoma.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10122\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10122\" style=\"width: 562px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/brownsville-herald-newspaper-0401-1937-easter-sunrise.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10122\" title=\"brownsville-herald-newspaper-0401-1937-easter-sunrise\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/brownsville-herald-newspaper-0401-1937-easter-sunrise.png\" alt=\"article about Easter sunrise service, Brownsville Herald newspaper article 1 April 1937\" width=\"562\" height=\"340\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/brownsville-herald-newspaper-0401-1937-easter-sunrise.png 562w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/brownsville-herald-newspaper-0401-1937-easter-sunrise-300x181.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/brownsville-herald-newspaper-0401-1937-easter-sunrise-495x300.png 495w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10122\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brownsville Herald (Brownsville, Texas), 1 April 1937, page 10<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Like Christmas Eve services that are often held at midnight in churches across the country on December 24th, church congregations have gathered for Easter sunrise services before dawn on Easter morning \u2013 often at beaches, parks, atop hills and even in cemeteries.<\/p>\n<p>[search_box]<\/p>\n<p>The congregation is often positioned so that they are facing the east and will see the sun rising during the service. It is customary to erect a cross at the service, like this 2007 Easter sunrise service held by Littlefield Memorial Baptist Church in Rockland, Maine.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10123\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10123\" style=\"width: 798px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/photo-0403-2015-maine-easter-sunrise.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10123\" title=\"photo-0403-2015-maine-easter-sunrise\" src=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/photo-0403-2015-maine-easter-sunrise.png\" alt=\"photo of a 2007 Easter sunrise service, Rockland, Maine\" width=\"798\" height=\"354\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/photo-0403-2015-maine-easter-sunrise.png 798w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/photo-0403-2015-maine-easter-sunrise-300x133.png 300w, https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/04\/photo-0403-2015-maine-easter-sunrise-500x221.png 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 798px) 100vw, 798px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10123\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Photo: 2007 Easter sunrise service, Rockland, Maine. Credit: Jp498 at English Wikipedia; Wikimedia Commons.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>GenealogyBank wishes you and yours a very happy Easter.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related Articles:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/our-ancestors-easter-parades-spring-fashions.html\">Our Ancestors\u2019 Easter Parades &amp; Spring Fashions<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/how-to-find-your-ancestors-church-records.html\">How to Find Your Ancestors\u2019 Church Records<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/blog.genealogybank.com\/tracking-down-family-bibles.html\">Tracking down Family Bibles<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>[bottom_post_ad]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Easter sunrise services have been held for centuries. According to Wikipedia, the earliest recorded sunrise service was held in 1732 in Germany. Easter sunrise services \u2013 often coupled with an early morning breakfast \u2013 have also been an American tradition since the 1700s. The Moravian Church Easter sunrise service, held annually since 1772 in Winston-Salem, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12713],"tags":[52,9226,9227,465,9229,1082,1734,9228,963,2020,27,964,9230,9231,1569],"class_list":["post-10120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-genealogy-research-tips","tag-easter","tag-easter-services","tag-easter-sunrise-services","tag-historical-newspapers","tag-littlefield-memorial-baptist-church","tag-maine","tag-me","tag-moravian-church-easter-sunrise-service","tag-nc","tag-newspaper-archives","tag-newspapers","tag-north-carolina","tag-rockland","tag-sunrise-services","tag-winston-salem"],"acf":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10120"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76511,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10120\/revisions\/76511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.genealogybank.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}